That Sense Of Belonging
by Karime N
Summary: What if Cedric Diggory had a sister? After the traumatic loss of her brother, Claire Diggory struggles with finding a way to forgive herself for letting her brother go into the maze without saying she was sorry. R&R :
1. Chapter 1: This Big Old House

That Sense Of Belonging

CHAPTER ONE: THIS BIG OLD HOUSE

She knocked on the door, and waited, _'maybe this time'_ she thought, but after a minute or so she gave up and took out her keys. She entered her house silently. To the naked eye, this house would look cheery, with pictures all over the walls, and those cream-colored walls, but Claire knew better, ever since her brother's death at the end of the school year, her family had been the opposite of perfect.

She walked to the kitchen, a sudden flash-back popped into her head, she saw her mother cooking something delicious, her father talking about work and her brother smiling broadly at her. She entered the kitchen, a weird sense of hope began to rise but all she saw was a little hastily scribbled note from her mother 'there's food in the cellar'. She felt a knot begin to form in her throat, she shook it of and headed to the cellar, there was a small package of pasta, she took it out and began to cook.

Half an hour later, she sat alone in her kitchen table, eating shabby pasta, she was so tired, she hadn't slept all summer because of her fear of drifting away and dreaming about that cold June day.

'_Are they back?' Ron said standing on tip toes, Claire did the same but all she saw was Krum rubbing his head and Madame Pomphrey ushering him to the hospital wing 'Mr. Krum has just been disqualified after 45 minutes into the task, now only Mr. Potter and Mr. Diggory remain in the maze'. _

_An hour passed, she was beginning to feel anxious herself. _

'_Claire, honey, how are you doing up there?' her mother yelled from the stands bellow, Claire waved at her and did a thumbs up._

_Half an hour later of no activity from the maze, there was a loud crackling sound that split the air like a whip and everything went quiet 'he-he told me to-to bring his body ba-back' someone sobbed in the field bellow, Ron and Hermione gasped, she got up from the stand and felt her heart drop, Harry was sobbing on top of someone, who had the same uniform her brother had. 'Ce-dric' she breathed, somehow the name she was so used to calling didn't come out. _

Claire woke up without being able to breathe, _'just a dream, just a dream'_ she thought. She had fallen asleep on top of her pasta, she wiped the sauce of her face and looked at her watch, 10 o'clock, and her parents hadn't come back. Tired, she threw her plate into the dishwasher and began to move lazily up stairs to her bedroom, she passed Cedric's bedroom without looking at it, trying to block the horrible pain that stabbed her every time she even thought of her brother.

The first thing she felt when she entered her room was a sharp pain on her finger, 'what the-!' she exclaimed but then a letter fell on top of he head, and a snowy white owl began to peck incitingly at her heals, 'Hedwig! Get off!', but the owl kept on going at her feet, Claire opened the letter, and the owl stopped. 'Geez' she breathed sitting on her bed.

Claire:

I just got arrested, dementors attacked me and now the ministry wants to get me expelled, my cousin's gone mad and my aunt and uncle are about to kick me out. What the hell will I do now!

I love you

Harry

Claire read the letter again, dementors? In Privet Drive? Hedwig began to hoot menacingly again, 'oh right, wait here' Claire said fetching a piece of parchment and a quill, she wrote.

Harry:

Are you ok? This doesn't make sense, why would dementors be roaming around Privet Drive? I'm writing a letter to Hermione and Ron, maybe they'll know what to do right? Don't leave the house, we don't know what might still be out there.

I love you too ]

Claire

'Hedwig, take this to Harry ok? As fast as you can go please' Claire said, tying the letter around the owl's wrist. Hedwig pecked her lightly and flew out the window. _'I should really write to Hermione' _Claire thought, she got a new piece of parchment and a quill and began to write.

Hermione:

Did you hear about what happened to Harry? I'm so worried! What's the worst thing that could happen to him though? Sorry I didn't answer your last letter, Im still… weird. It's as if I didn't have any sourt of feeling or anything. It's hell. And no I don't think my parents would mind if I go with you the rest of the summer, its not like they'd miss me, I barely see them now a days.

Xox

Claire

'Soc, come on, I need you to take a letter to Hermione' I said tapping the barred owl's cage, it used to belong to Cedric and its real name was Socrates, I smiled remembering how much I had bothered him when he had given his owl that nerdy name.

The Soc opened its big yellow eyes and stretched its wings, I tied the letter to its ankle and watched it fly away.

She threw herself to the bed, it was half an hour past midnight and still no sign of her parents, just then, she heard a rattling of her mothers keys in the door, Claire got up and ran down the stairs, 'mum?' she asked poking her head through the corridor, her mother was throwing her keys into the bowl where we kept mostly everything 'hi' Claire said shyly, her mother nodded and began to walk up the stairs, 'mother, Hermione invited me to stay with her the rest of the summer, and I thought that since I'm not doing anything but spending time alone in the house, I could go' her mother looked at her and smiled weakly 'of course you can go Claire' she said and she disappeared into her bedroom.


	2. Chapter 2: Lessons Learned

CHAPTER TWO: LESSONS LEARNED. 

Claire, woke up the next day from sleeping three hours, after a while she got tired of looking at her ceiling with a deep longing to get at least a few more hours of sleep. So, she threw on a pair of pants and a sweatshirt and tiptoed downstairs to sneak in a last visit to Ced's grave. 'Claire?' her dad was sitting in the table drinking a huge mug of coffee, he looked old, his hair was messy and grey, his eyes were droopy and red, and he was as white as flour, 'what are you doing?' he asked, 'I was about to go see Ced-' her father flinched at the name, 'your mother tells me your spending the rest of the summer with that Potter boy', _'that's rich, you spent half of last year talking about how nice he was' _Claire thought, 'yes, I am spending the summer with my boyfriend Harry and my friends Ron and Hermione' her father scowled at her and mumbled something that sounded like 'Cedric would have never abandoned your mother like this', Claire felt his heart break piece by piece, but she wasn't going to take any more rubbish from him 'well, I'm not Cedric, I'm leaving around noon, so goodbye if I don't get to see you before that' and with that she made an attempt to give him a hug but her father turned his back on her, just like everyone else did.

'_I miss you so much Ced, I know that maybe you cant hear me but I'm sorry…' _Claire imagined Cedric smiling at her, lying on the grass besides his grave reminded Claire of that summer day last year, when they spent the whole day just looking at the sky. '_Mum and dad hate me, I'm sure they wish it had been me instead of you'._

Claire stayed there until an hour to noon, she stood up and began to clean the clear marble of the headstone, and then she placed the flowers she had bought right outside before entering. 'I love you' she whispered.

She stood up and began to walk back to her house, 15 minutes later; she was opening the door to her house to find nothing but her bags and belongings pilled neatly in front of the door. Her heart began to rise, _'did they really just leave?' _Claire walked through the house; there wasn't any furniture, no pictures on the wall, no sign that somebody had lived here just four hours ago. She felt tears begin to fill her eyes, her parents had gone, they had abandoned her, _'its just a dream, just a dream' _but as she opened her parents bedroom door she fell to her knees and began to sob, there was no bed, there were still dust marks of where everything had been. 'Mum?' she called; 'dad?' but there was no answer. She ran to every single part her parent's could be, but there was no sign of anything. She entered her brother's room, it was intact, and she threw herself into her brother's bed and began to cry into his pillow. She drifted away and didn't wake up until somebody shook her up.

'Claire?' asked Hermione worriedly, Claire sat up and looked around the room, it wasn't Cedric's it was dark, and smelled weird, 'where am I?' she asked drowsily, 'The Order's Headquarters' Hermione said pushing her back down, 'you need to get some more sleep, you've been through a lot today'. She stood up and got out of the bedroom, Claire tried to remember what had happened, she entered the house but there was nobody there, had her parents told her they were leaving soon but she hadn't listened? Or maybe her mother had packed everything for her so she could go and find them, but where? Aunt Cecil's house? Or maybe her parents didn't want to do anything with her, but would they really leave her? She felt a sudden rush to throw up, _'no, cant be, her parents loved her, there was maybe some sort of misunderstanding' _a knock on the door made her jump, Mrs. Weasley entered the room smiling 'hi darling, how're you feeling?' she asked smoothing down Claire's hair, Claire tried to say 'ok' but the words didn't come out. 'Claire honey, we want to let you know that you can always stay with us at our house, its not big but it's something'

'no, my parents will come back' she said a little to sharply, Mrs. Weasley's smiled faded, 'honey, there's something you have to see' she fiddled though her apron's pocket and took out a letter 'here, read it'. Claire took the letter and opened it.

Claire,

We're sorry, but maybe its time to part, its not that we don't love you,

honey, we love you but your father and I cant stay here anymore

We are not abandoning you, we're just leaving for a while, there's an account on Gringotts with your name on it

We're sorry.

Claire, traced the placed her mother had written on with her finger, she still felt the placed she had pressed the pen to hard, 'they left me' she whispered, Mrs. Weasely hugged her 'don't worry darling, we're all here for you' Claire sobbed into Mrs. Weasley's shoulder, what was she going to do? She couldn't just barge into somebody else's life and take over everything.

She cried for hours, not only for what had happened, but for Cedric for not saying what she needed, for not being there for him when he needed it.


	3. Chapter 3: A New Beginning

CHAPTER THREE: A NEW BEGINNING 

MRS. WEASLEY'S POV

She closed the door to Claire's bedroom, '_poor girl' _she thought shaking her head, she went down the stairs quietly, and went into the kitchen, her husband was sitting in the table with Sirius and Lupin, 'what will we do? We have to get him out of there' said Sirius, but everyone went quiet when she sat down next to Arthur 'how is she?' asked Lupin, Molly shook her head 'shocked, I just showed her the letter and she cried for what seemed to be days' Lupin sighed 'Amos probably wasn't thinking straight, he always loved Claire, and Ana would never leave her baby' said Arthur, 'well they just did, but what are we going to do Arthur?' Molly asked taking a glass of water from the middle of the table 'we could keep her you know?' she said quietly, 'the boys love her and Ginny has always sort of idolized her' Arthur considered it 'I guess, we have to talk to Dumbledore first though, Claire's been through a lot in just four months, but we are going to offer to keep her of course' Molly smiled, 'well, I'd better start dinner, when is Harry getting here? That will help Claire get back on her feet' Sirius

Smiled 'Harry will probably get here tonight' he said, Molly began to make chicken soup and shepherds pie. After an hour or so of cooking, she called the kids to come and help set up the table, 'mum, how's Claire? What happened to her?' asked Fred taking a handful of cutlery from the drawer bellow the stove, 'she's weak, could you go wake her up?' Fred nodded and began to climb up the stairs.

CLAIRE'S POV

She felt someone shake her up slightly, Fred Weasley was sitting in her bed, looking at her with that pity smile she was so used to getting now a days. 'How are you feeling?' he asked, Claire shrugged, 'numb' she said grinning. Fred hugged her and kissed her head 'you're like a sister to me, and now we might actually be brother and sister' Claire flinched back at the word brother, 'I'm sorry' she said to Fred who looked at her confused, 'its just that the idea of Ced just…' she trailed off. Fred smiled at her 'its ok, so, dinner's ready, and Harry's probably on his way here' Claire's heart skipped, she hadn't seen Harry all summer, and she missed him so much, 'great, I'll be down in a minute'.

Mrs. Weasley had left a towel and some shampoo, Claire got into the bathroom and undressed, she touched the tattoo she had in her shoulder she felt the name of 'Cedric' engraved on her skin. She had done it on one of her long walks to York, she met loads of interesting muggles there and one of them worked on that tattoo shop and had convinced her to get one.

She got into the shower and felt the water run smoothly through her body, she felt calmer as if the water had momentarily drowned the pain away.

After a long satisfying bath, Claire got into her sweatpants and sweatshirt and went downstairs.

She entered the kitchen and saw Harry who ran at her and picked her up kissing her like they hadn't seen each other in years 'I missed you' Claire said kissing him again, somebody coughed in the kitchen 'oh, sorry, erm- hi' she said nervously looking at Mr. Weasley and Sirius who were looking at them expectantly 'Claire' said Sirius hugging her 'you know that you're always welcomed here right?' Claire nodded, and sat down besides Harry. Dinner passed rapidly, Claire was starving, living of cold pasta and salad was horrible and at last she had something to eat that was worm and delicious, for a moment she was so happy to see Harry, Ron, Fred, George, Ginny and Hermione again that she forgot about what had happened, it wasn't until Lupin brought the subject up 'Claire, you need a new guardian to enter your Gringotts vault, we've been discussing it and maybe its best if Arthur and Molly were your guardians' the table grew silent, Claire looked at Lupin confused 'but, my parents might come back, they should've set something up for the time being' Lupin looked at her sadly 'Claire, I don't think they're coming back, we need to start changing things as quickly as possible' , Harry squeezed her hand and smiled at her, 'well, I guess that for the time being, if they want to they could be, I mean, I really don't want to be burden' Mrs. Weasley gasped and ran to hug Claire 'not at all, I've always wanted two daughters' she said between heartfelt sobs, Mr. Weasley stood up and joined the hug, so did the other Weasleys. 'Thanks Mrs. And Mr. Weasley' said Claire trying to keep her voice steady, 'nonsense, now you'll call us mom and dad' said Mrs. Weasley smiling and wiping her tears.

Dinner went on smoothly after that, until Harry began to ask questions about He-who-must-not-be-named, 'everybody else, up' snapped Mrs. Weasley, Claire didn't know what to do, so she just stayed besides Harry and waited until the conversation was over 'what has the Order been doing to stop him?' asked Harry, Lupin crossed his arms 'we've been recruiting, and so has he, but its difficult to do so if Fudge isn't cooperating' Sirius coughed 'have you read the Dailey Prophet?' Harry shook his head 'well, its been attacking you and Dumbledore, telling everybody that you're mentally ill and sorts' Harry took the Dailey Prophet from Lupin and just after reading the first paragraph he threw it aside 'but why wont he understand?' he exclaimed letting go of Claire's hand, 'its stupid we know' said Moody who had just moved out of a shadowy corner, 'but we think he's after something, a weapon, something he didn't have last time', Harry frowned 'like something that'll kill everyone?' Sirius was about to say something when Mrs. Weasley stood up 'that's enough, he is just a boy!' she yelled at Sirius, 'but he has the right to know Molly!' said Sirius, 'well that's responsible of you Black' Mrs. Weasley said savagely, Sirius stood up 'are you calling me irresponsible?' Mrs. Weasley nodded 'he's not James Sirius!'

'And his not your son' said Sirius hotly 'he's as good as' retorted Mrs. Weasley. 'Well, bed then?' suggested Mr. Weasley trying to cover up the awkward moment, Lupin nodded and stood up, everyone did the same and said goodnight. Harry accompanied Claire to her bedroom, they sat on her bed 'Claire, how are you feeling?' he asked her, Claire was about to say 'fine' but after seeing those bright green lights, she gave up and before she could stop herself she launched into telling everything she had been feeling for the past four months, they talked for what seemed to be hours, 'so, after my parents left, I just felt as if they never wanted me, that they didn't care, and I'm trying to be strong but sometimes I can't' she finished, Harry hugged her and kissed her head, 'can you stay here tonight?' she asked him taking his hand, Harry nodded, 'I'll get a cot or something', but she didn't let go of him, 'no stay with me here' she said touching the other side of the bed. Harry smiled and lay down on the bed, Claire rested her head on his chest and Harry put his arms around her and kissed her forehead 'goodnight' breathed Claire, Harry kissed her head 'I love you' he whispered and with that Claire fell asleep.


	4. Chapter 4: All I Want

CHAPTER FOUR:

Claire woke up the next morning next Harry who was still sleeping, she curled closer to him, feeling every steady heart beat, the shape of his hand in hers and the soft sound of his breathing. _'I wish I could stay like this forever'_ she thought to herself, but why couldn't she? Just because her parents were the cruelest people alive, why did it mean she had to be miserable forever, _'he wouldn't want you to be weak' _she thought, and it was true, Ced would never want her to be like this. 'Morning' grunted Harry next to her, Claire squeezed his hand 'morning' she smiled, 'wow, that was the best night of my life, I've never slept so good' Harry said rubbing his eyes. There was a knock on the door, 'mate, its me Ron, let me in' Harry sat up 'oh, oh, what if Mrs. Weasley finds out we slept together? Like in the same bed?' he said eyeing the door, 'come on Harry, my mum's not up yet' Ron said knocking again, Harry sighed and got out of bed, he opened the door and let Ron in as fast as he could. Ron smiled at Claire, and hugged her 'your parents are gits for leaving you behind' he joked. 'You are very lucky people you know that? Mum doesn't know you… spent the night together' he said clearing his throat 'we didn't do anything Ronald' Harry said rolling his eyes, Ron eyed them curiously 'really?' 'Yes Ron' Claire said throwing him a pillow 'ok, so I'll just tell mum you slept over there with me ok?' Ron said to Harry who nodded, 'well, I'll leave you guys alone, little lovebirds' he smirked walking out of the room and closing the door behind him.

Harry pulled Claire into his arms and kissed her 'I've missed you so much' he breathed, kissing her in the neck, Claire smiled and kissed him back 'I've missed you'. They sat down on the bed 'so, I got a little something for you' Harry said, he took out a gold necklace with a key 'it's just something, you've got the key to my heart, its tacky but…' he trailed of, Claire smiled, 'its beautiful Harry, thanks, will you put it on?' she asked, Harry nodded and put the necklace around her neck, and kissed her again.

Claire hadn't felt so alive in such a long time, Harry made her feel that way, and she felt special with him, as if she was the ONLY thing that mattered.

They spent the rest of the day cleaning up the house; Mrs. Weasley forced every one to work except Claire who worked any way.

'Let's get out of here' whispered Harry behind Claire, she turned around to look at him 'where do we go?' she whispered, 'any where you want', Claire considered this, 'France' she giggled, 'or, Spain' said Harry kissing her. Harry took her hand and pulled her out of the room, they tiptoed up stairs to the ceiling, 'maybe we can see France from here' said Harry helping her up, 'or Spain' Claire remembered him. They sat down on the edge of the building, Harry took out some sandwiches he had taken from the kitchen and gave one to Claire. 'So, tomorrow's your birthday' she said to Harry, he nodded, 'I want a really awesome birthday present' he joked, Claire punched him playfully 'I'll do my best'. Harry rubbed his scar distractedly 'is it hurting again?' Claire asked quietly, Harry looked up, 'no, it prickles like this sometimes', Claire kissed his forehead, and 'we can't have that' she smiled.

'Claire, I'm worried' Harry said looking into the red sky, 'about what?' 'You' he said taking Claire's hand, 'I don't want anything to happen to you' he said, 'I want you to stay with me, forever, so I can protect you' he whispered, Claire hugged him and they stayed like that for the longest time, not saying anything to each other, just being together was enough.


End file.
